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Humanitarian situation continues to be in increasingly precarious conditions day after day, as civilians are confined to smaller areas in Vanni, North-East Sri Lanka.

Many of them have displaced multiple times within a short period of time, moving from village to village. Pristine gravel pathways cutting across Vanni villages surrounding paddy fields are filled with steady streams of humanity seeking safety.

With the war zone shrinking and a huge population of civilians in the area, the situation has grown desperate in recent days, U.N. resident coordinator Neil Buhne told The Associated Press on Monday, Jan 26.

“There have been many civilians killed over the last two days,” he said. “It’s really a crisis now.”

Throughout Sunday January 25th, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued artillery shelling on densely populated ‘safety zone,’ in Chuthanthirapuram, Udaiyaarkaddu and Thearaavil in Visuvamadu, at least twice attacking the vicinity of the supply centre, located at Chuthanthirapuram playground, the only centre in Vanni where humanitarian supplies brought in by the UN World Food Programme are distributed. Two shells exploded in the premises, killing five members of a single family of Mr. Jegatheeswaran, owner of a saloon displaced from Visuvamadu. Five more civilians, including children and women, were also killed.

[Children seeking safety in bunker from Sri Lanka Air Force bombing]

According to civil society sources, all civilians are in life threatening situation. Health services are reported to be facing severe safety, security, medicinal shortage.

A New York Times report on Jan 22nd said, “there have been at least 11 Sri Lankan aerial attacks on or near hospitals inside the rebel-held areas between Dec. 15 and Jan. 15, according to a United Nations official who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak with the media.”